英语词汇porcupine的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

porcupine. The porcupine (Erethigon dorsatium) of North America takes its name from Middle French porc d’espine, “thorny pig,” the medieval French apparently considering the animal a kind of pig. The spiny rodent is actually of the same family as the guinea pig. The porcupine, well known in antiqui- ty, was the subject of an ode by the Roman poet Claudius; its sharp quills (a mature porcupine has 30,000 of them) were once used as arrow tips and made into magic bundles and fet- ishes. Porklike porcupine meat, especially that of the crested porcupine, the largest species, is still eaten in Italy, Tunisia, Lebanon, Asia Minor, and South Africa, among other places. The cornered porcupine does throw its quills at enemies, though involuntarily. But the “terrible porcupine” of Shake- speare does not shoot hundreds of quills at dogs and hunters, as Aristotle and scores of cartoonists have portrayed it from early times. Many a zookeeper has been shot by a loose quill, and one farmer reported that a trapped porcupine had thrown several quills with such force that they became embedded in tree branches high above it. Despite its menacing barbed quills, large wild cats and trained dogs can overcome the porcupine. Still, the legendary animal lives longer than any rodent; a crest- ed porcupine in India holds the record of 22 years. There has been much speculation and joking about how porcupines mate (“Carefully!”), but in reality the female simply flattens her tail against her back, and the male mounts her with his forefeet.

词汇	porcupine
词源	porcupine. The porcupine (Erethigon dorsatium) of North America takes its name from Middle French porc d’espine, “thorny pig,” the medieval French apparently considering the animal a kind of pig. The spiny rodent is actually of the same family as the guinea pig. The porcupine, well known in antiqui- ty, was the subject of an ode by the Roman poet Claudius; its sharp quills (a mature porcupine has 30,000 of them) were once used as arrow tips and made into magic bundles and fet- ishes. Porklike porcupine meat, especially that of the crested porcupine, the largest species, is still eaten in Italy, Tunisia, Lebanon, Asia Minor, and South Africa, among other places. The cornered porcupine does throw its quills at enemies, though involuntarily. But the “terrible porcupine” of Shake- speare does not shoot hundreds of quills at dogs and hunters, as Aristotle and scores of cartoonists have portrayed it from early times. Many a zookeeper has been shot by a loose quill, and one farmer reported that a trapped porcupine had thrown several quills with such force that they became embedded in tree branches high above it. Despite its menacing barbed quills, large wild cats and trained dogs can overcome the porcupine. Still, the legendary animal lives longer than any rodent; a crest- ed porcupine in India holds the record of 22 years. There has been much speculation and joking about how porcupines mate (“Carefully!”), but in reality the female simply flattens her tail against her back, and the male mounts her with his forefeet.
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